Interested in people - what their needs are - enabling them to do things successfully on the web

My role with clients

We’re going to start talking about design by not talking about design. We’re going to start with people, and their situations

Who’s looking for and using information on the web? What is their situation?

Example: tea cup and coffee mug - both with coffee - will the form effect how you drink?

Make this list a hand-out

Visual design on the web is just one part of a larger effort - designing the user experience

Important distinction - effects the type of designer/skills needed Effects the design and development process Some sites are a hybrid

Explain patterns Bring up social media - more closely integrated in an App

Any questions before we go on?

Back to our criteria: Professional, Helpful, Trustworthy. These elements are from all over the elements “map” - they cross visual design, IA, UI, etc. to make up the overall “experience” What can design do to make something professional?

Brand plays in to this: Tone of content affects brand

Use the list of visual elements and our 3 criteria when evaluating Address: how can branding be/is being leveraged in these examples - what can Harvard Health Publications or Consumer Reports Health do that a lesser known org can&apos;t?

Cite UPA preso as example of #1 &amp;2 - Patients like me site - turns user stories into data. Presents the data to empower people to take control of their health #3: Cover article Interactions magazine, design/health specialties at several larger firms in the area How social media fits into an overall design strategy - people want to share health-related data, and sites need to provide the tools to do so. What tools and the extent of the tools depends on the focus of the site. Patientslikeme.com - social is the CORE of the site. NIH - not so much

Differences between a site and application: AP: Developer may prototype FIRST SITE: IA may be prototyped and tested before design SITE: content may be developed partly before design, completed before design is complete. Tone of content affects brand Agile - #2-5 done in “Sprint 0”

Use MIT medical as examples #2: up front research is needed if: team knows there are problems but not sure what they are, team lacks a shared and adequate understanding of users, lack of team unity/multiple/conflicting priorities #3: we recently worked on a site visual design. The site was moving to a CMS. The team said they would do the IA. They thought that meant defining the site map. Did not realize that it also meant defining content and features at a high level. Did not understand the need to define TEMPLATES.

#6: iterative - may be done in 3 steps - home page and 1-2 pages first, selection of direction and refinement - application to @3 more pages/templates, finally applied to all pages/templates #7: what is delivered will depend on a variety of situations - who is creating the code for the site, site or application, etc. How does the design of content fit into the visual design? - Varies depending on if a site or application, if user generated content.

User experience designer – skills in all to some degree. Ideally has deep skill/experience in one. May not have any visual design training. May come from humanities, library science, writing background

Visual designer – AIGA affiliation, BFA/MFA in graphic design. Focus on web over print. Work that shows a relationship to your site, ability to communicate clearly about what they provide and their process, capable of putting user needs ahead of visual treatment

User experience designer – proven track record, relevant client/project list, recommendations from a range of professionals – business leaders, engineers, visual designers. Must have some experience with some form of user research. Affiliation with multiple design-related organizations.